No nationwide lockdown from September 25: Govt

New Delhi: In the backdrop of the rising number of Covid-19 cases, a purported copy of an order from the National Disaster Management Authority urging the Centre to reimpose nationwide lockdown from September 25 in doing the rounds. The Press Information Bureau has clarified that the order is fake and no nationwide lockdown is being imposed again.

“In order to contain the spread of Covid-19 and decrease the mortality rate in the country, the National Disaster Management Authority, along with the Planning commission, hereby urges the government of India and directs the Prime Minister office, ministry of home affairs to re-impose a strict nationwide lockdown of 46 days starting from midnight September 25, 2020. Maintaining the supply chain of essential commodities in the country, therefore hereby NDMA is issuing a prior notice to the ministry to plan accordingly,” the fake order, bearing the date of September 10, says.

June, Centre started unlocking process, which entered the fourth stage in September. Activities which were prohibited during the two-month lockdown have resumed in a graded manner. In between, rumours of fresh lockdown spread several times, but the Centre maintained there will be no nationwide lockdown — apart from the restrictions already imposed in containment zones.

India on Sunday registered 94,372 new Covid-19 new cases, which pushed the overall tally to above 4.75 million. This is the fourth consecutive day when the new Covid-19 cases in the country have hovered around 95,000.

According to Union health ministry update on Sunday, the number of active cases has reached 9,73,175 and 37,02,595 patients have been discharged.